Tuesday, September 26, 2017

The AIM Program Welcomed Derek Urben, CFO & Business Development of Coinigy, a Blockchain Market Intelligence Company

This week the AIM students learned about recent developments in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology

Derek Urben of Coinigy visited the AIM Program

Derek
Urben, CFO & Business Development, of Coinigy (a Milwaukee-based Blockchain
Market Intelligence Company) presented to the AIM students in Dr. Krause’s
class on Monday, September 25, 2017. He talked about a number of timely issued
likely to impact the finance industry within the next few years.

He
began by providing some useful quoted from highly regarded economic and
financial experts. For instance, “Cryptology
represents the future of privacy [and] by implication [it] also represents the
future of money, and the future of banking and finance,” per the words of J.
Orlin Grabbe, noted economist.

Tom Dietz, Dr. Krause and Derek Urben

According
to Dr. Krause, “Derek did a wonderful job taking difficult topics (i.e.
blockchain and cryptocurrency) and explaining them clearly. For instance, he
helped the AIM students understand blockchain – which is a distributed ledger
made up of blocks (i.e. records) that record transactions between two entities
in a verifiable manner. He explained that each block is timestamped in order to
link it to the previous one to create a chain, where any change requires
altering all following blocks as well as network majority consensus.”

Derek Urben, Dr. Joe Wall and MaxMattappillil

Krause continued, “Derek also clearly
explained bitcoin which is basically the first implementation of a blockchain
to create a decentralized, payment-to-payment system. As a cryptocurrency, it
uses a network of nodes to relay transactions. He helped the students
understand that Bitcoin is not issued, administered, or wholly owned by any
government body or institution – like the Internet.”

He took the students back to January 2009 –
and the birth of bitcoin. “In early 2009, the first implementation of a
blockchain – Bitcoin – was released as open-source code by Satoshi Nakamoto.
While Bitcoin wasn’t the first digital currency, it was the first to include
blockchain technology paired with a proof-of-work system and inflation control.
Derek then brought the students up to September 2017 and updated them on the
current status of the global cryptocurrency market.

Go to the Marquette University AIM Program Website (click on image below)

Marquette AIM Program

Marquette AIM Program Blog

The AIM Program at Marquette University began in 2005. Since then over 400 undergraduate students have participated in the program. Our alumni can be found in leading asset managers and investment banks throughout the country - and the world. As the first undergraduate program partner with the CFA Institute, we take pride in our students' successful placements and high CFA exam pass rates. In 2014 we added our second track: Private Equity & Investment Banking. We now offer students an opportunity to participate in the Finance in New York Program. Please feel free to contact us at:aim@marquette.edu